Every class has a few marginalized, given-up-on students. Usually, though, even if these students are abandoned by some core subject teachers, there are still respected elective course teachers who care about them. But rarely was there a student like Xing Wu who was marginalized by teachers of all subjects – even the PE teacher cursed at the sight of him.
Therefore, no one would question whether he did his homework or not. The only reason this test paper appeared on his desk on the first day of school was that he hadn’t taken it home before the break – it had been stuffed in his drawer the whole time.
So when Qingye took it now, it had no impact on him whatsoever.
While Teacher Zhu explained the second half of the test paper at the podium, Qingye buried her head and started writing from the first question. Xing Wu finished an entire game, looked up at her once, and saw she hadn’t changed her position at all.
When Teacher Zhu reached the final heavyweight question, Qingye had just caught up and was writing the last problem. She had just organized her problem-solving approach and was about to write when suddenly there was a “bang” from the podium. Qingye’s pen-holding hand jolted violently as she looked at Teacher Pig Manure, whose hair had somehow exploded again. She felt grateful for having changed seats during the break – otherwise, she might have had a heart attack from his banging.
Teacher Zhu began raging at the podium again: “I must first praise class monitor Fan Tong – he’s the only one in the class who at least wrote a parabola equation for the last question, worth one point.”
While Qingye was wondering who this trash bin was, she saw everyone looking at Panghu, who was scratching his head and smiling stupidly: “Th-thank you, Teacher Zhu.”
Instantly, Qingye felt dizzy. Where on earth had she come to? A two-hundred-pound fatty with seemingly zero IQ and a serious stutter was their… class monitor.
Sitting in her seat, Qingye felt her worldview being instantly shattered. Now she finally understood why Huangmao had said Panghu would look after her at the barbecue. So he was a class officer? Who could have guessed?
Teacher Zhu sprayed spittle as he scolded: “I know this question is difficult, it’s from top schools’ question banks, but no matter how hard it is, none of you even wrote ‘Solution’ and a colon – were you raised on pig feed? Huh? Harder to pull than a tractor, and at least tractors know how to puff smoke, but you? You can’t even spit out a ‘Solution.’ Do you have the nerve to call yourselves high school students? I’m too embarrassed to tell people I taught you. You make me, a people’s teacher, live in sin every day. I feel like I’m letting down your ancestors…”
With Comrade Zhu’s startling scolding voice, Qingye simply stopped writing, and sat in her chair with arms crossed, finding it increasingly interesting. She suddenly felt this math teacher was wasting his talents teaching math – he could try stand-up comedy, though preferably maintaining a minimum five-meter splash damage distance from the audience.
Halfway through his rant, Comrade Zhu suddenly noticed Qingye sitting properly in her chair, smiling. Although other students were laughing too, Teacher Zhu immediately sensed this girl’s smile was different from others – carrying a hint of cold arrogance and disdain, as if watching a comedy show. His scolding stopped abruptly, and he called out: “Xing Wu…”
Xing Wu, who had been battling intensely with his game, suddenly heard his name and looked up puzzled, only to hear Teacher Zhu continue: “That female student in front of you, what are you laughing at?”
The whole class turned around in unison. Seeing it wasn’t about him, Xing Wu lowered his head again. Qingye’s smile gradually faded as she replied neither humbly nor arrogantly: “Nothing in particular, just listening to the teacher’s education and guidance.”
The words “education and guidance” sounded somewhat jarring to Teacher Zhu’s ears. Although he was indeed educating, he had to admit his previous words weren’t particularly noble. But if he had to find fault with this girl’s response, there seemed to be nothing wrong with what she said.
Teacher Zhu narrowed his eyes and asked in an unfriendly tone: “Where did you get that test paper in front of you?”
Qingye replied without blinking: “Borrowed it from the classmate behind me.”
Everyone’s eyes widened instantly, looking at the back row in disbelief. Although Xing Wu didn’t do homework, it took guts to take things from him – which was why his test paper had stayed in his drawer all summer.
And this transfer student, on her first day, just after changing seats, took Xing Wu’s test paper? Took it? Even more bizarrely, Xing Wu hadn’t said a word. The last person who took his test paper nearly got skinned alive!
The short, skinny boy sitting in front of Qingye, nicknamed Little Wonder and known for knowing all the school gossip inside and out, turned around, looked, and immediately exclaimed “Whoa!” saying: “She’s almost finished it.”
Fang Lei glanced at the blackboard and suddenly spoke up: “Teacher Zhu, since this question is so difficult, why not let the transfer student from Beijing try it? If even a student from a good school can’t solve it, aren’t you being too hard on us?”
With these words, the whole class started clamoring. When asked to answer questions, they all played dead, but they never missed a chance to watch drama. They secretly hoped Qingye couldn’t solve it either, taking the opportunity to let Teacher Zhu experience how twisted his questions were.
Xing Wu frowned at the noise and quit his game, looking up at the person in front of him.
Teacher Zhu patted the podium and shouted: “Quiet, quiet, what will people outside think? That female student, come to the front.”
Qingye slowly turned her head, calmly staring at Fang Lei, who turned back with a malicious smile. Qingye’s expression remained blank as she withdrew her gaze and stood up, walking toward the podium in her lambskin flats, her long legs straight and graceful. As she passed the male students’ desks, many bent their heads to look at her skirt hem.
Qingye walked up to the podium. Teacher Zhu handed her a piece of chalk and pointed at the blackboard: “Write as much as you can. If you can’t do the second question, try solving the equations for these three curves first.”
Qingye took the chalk and walked to the far left of the blackboard to begin writing. The overhead fan’s breeze gently swayed her white skirt, her raised arm slender and graceful, the dress pulled into a beautiful curve showing her waistline, the chalk in her hand moving as if enchanted, without the slightest pause.
Teacher Zhu opened his tea cup lid, blew on the floating tea leaves, and took a sip. When he looked back, Qingye had already filled half the blackboard, startling him. He hurriedly put down his cup, put on his glasses, and intently watched the equations she was writing.
The students below went from grinning faces to frozen smiles, and finally to utter amazement.
Qingye continued writing across the entire blackboard, solving the first sub-question almost effortlessly. She directly pulled across the sliding blackboard and began the second sub-question, her cool demeanor leaving everyone stunned.
Gradually, the classroom fell completely silent, everyone staring at her nimble wrist like Teacher Zhu.
Having attended one class, Qingye figured out Teacher Zhu’s usual problem-solving approach. To minimize his rambling, she quickly wrote out another possible solution method he might mention on the third blackboard panel.
After densely filling the entire blackboard, Qingye turned around, tossed the chalk into the holder, and then… just left? Turned and walked out of the classroom, left???
Everyone in the classroom was dumbfounded, including Teacher Zhu, whose head turned mechanically following Qingye’s figure outside, completely unable to understand where this girl was going.
Then everyone saw Qingye walk straight to a row of drinking water taps outside the classroom, turn on the tap they usually drank from, and start… washing her hands… washing hands?
While everyone was confused, Xing Wu discreetly curved his lips and checked the time.
Since elementary school, Qingye’s classrooms had been equipped with whiteboards. As she grew older, teachers increasingly emphasized the quality of teaching materials, with most instruction becoming electronically integrated. Even when blackboards were needed, they used dustless chalk. Looking at her hands that seemed to have been rolled in flour, she couldn’t understand how the students here endured this snowing chalk dust.
Fortunately, when she finished writing, she spotted the row of taps outside the classroom. She thought this was quite humane, allowing immediate hand washing after using chalk, so without a word, she tossed the chalk and came out to wash her hands. Looking at the rust-stained taps, she didn’t think for a moment they were for drinking water.
So all the students watched as this transfer student used their drinking fountain to wash her hands for a full five minutes, washing until the class dismissal bell rang. When Qingye turned around, the class was already in chaos.
Someone raised their voice and shouted: “Brother Wu, you know that transfer student? How come you gave her your test paper?”
Qingye was just shaking water off her hands as she walked into the classroom, heard this, and slowly turned to look at Xing Wu. He carelessly met her gaze and said flatly: “Not familiar.”
Not familiar? Good, very good.
Qingye’s gaze remained undisturbed as she returned to her seat and packed her things into her bag. Panghu squeezed over, leaning on Xing Wu’s desk and smiling foolishly at Qingye: “How not fa-“
Qingye slung her bag over her shoulder, raised her head cutting off Panghu’s words, and said coldly: “Yes, not very familiar. How familiar can we be without even having WeChat?”
With that, she pushed her chair under the desk and left through the back door.
Panghu stared dumbly at Qingye’s retreating figure. Xing Wu rubbed his buzz cut and lazily stretched.
Panghu asked in confusion: “What’s wrong with her?”
Xing Wu’s lips curved slightly: “The paper tiger got lit up.”
“???”
Qingye had left, but she didn’t know that as soon as she left school, the entire third year at An Zhong exploded.
While Qingye was washing her hands, Teacher Zhu had Little Wonder, who sat in front of her, bring up the test paper from her desk. He produced a pen from somewhere and began grading. When he reached the back side, Teacher Zhu became as excited as if he’d been injected with chicken blood. He threw down his pen and suddenly rushed into the neighboring Class 1, calling everyone over to observe Qingye’s neat and clear answers on the blackboard.
Teacher Zhu taught math for both Class 1 and Class 2. In all his years teaching at An Zhong, he had taught many excellent students, but never had a student shown such rigorous logical thinking, presenting all possible solution paths for this question in one go, without the slightest error.
Xing Wu had been ready to leave but was suddenly surrounded by Class 1 students on all sides. He could only sit in his chair and wait for Teacher Zhu to finish explaining the problems on the blackboard. Students from other classes had also been dismissed, and passing by Class 2, not knowing what was happening, they all stopped at Class 2’s windows, crowding so densely that no water could pass through. Some even climbed onto classmates’ shoulders to look inside.
Teacher Zhu faced the entire grade, picked up the test paper Qingye had just written, raised it with one hand, and said in full voice: “A student who just transferred here today casually wrote a test paper and scored 149 points.”
With a “bang,” the test paper was slapped onto the podium. Everyone, including those watching from outside the windows, was dumbfounded.
Teacher Zhu then pointed to a hole in the multiple-choice section: “Qingye borrowed this test paper from a classmate. The only point deducted was from this multiple-choice question where there’s a burn hole.”
Instantly, all classmates turned to look at Xing Wu in unison. Even Class 1 students and those watching from outside turned to look at him in confusion. At this moment, Teacher Zhu’s eyes seemed ready to shoot fire, suggesting that if it weren’t for Xing Wu’s cigarette burning a hole in the test paper, the transfer student would likely have gotten a perfect score.
Seeing so many gazes on him, Xing Wu twisted his mouth and shrugged, looking completely unconcerned.
Teacher Zhu roared with primordial force at students from all classes in the grade: “Starting today, everyone goes home and reflects! Hundreds of people couldn’t outperform one transfer student on this question. I’m embarrassed for you all, trash bins!”
Finally, Teacher Zhu ended this practical educational activity with his signature phrase, stirring up collective anger and making the entire grade remember this transfer student named Qingye. Although the vast majority didn’t know what Qingye looked like, everyone was grinding their teeth in hatred as they went downstairs.
Thus, Qingye, while sitting at home, had trouble falling from the sky, becoming public enemy number one in an instant.
Panghu, seeing the cursing from students of other classes, nervously approached Xing Wu: “Br-Brother Wu, Qingye seems to be in tr-trouble.”
Xing Wu, riding his Ninebot with hands in his track pants pockets, replied with a hint of casualness: “Is that so? Tell Huangmao not to interfere. Didn’t she want to be my sister? Let’s see if she has what it takes.”